Method of curing surface covering materials



Patented Aug. 12, 1941 METHOD Ol CURING S were]; eovnmc MATERIALS; u l Walter W. Durant, Old Greenwich. .Conm, 3.8-.

s1gnor.to American Cyanamid Company; York, N. Y., a corporation of. Mai-ne New No Drawing. Application Novembgr go,21939 7 Serial No.306i90l 4 Claims. (01. 106 -264) I Thisinvention relates to the acceleration of the rate of curing or seasoning. of surface covering compositions such as floor covering compositions containing siccative binders, as well as to the improvement in the alkali resistance of such compositions. q Anobject of this invention is to provide accelerators for surface covering. compositions containing siccative binders which willicause'such compositions to cure more rapidly. Another object. of this invention. is. to improvethe'alkali resistance of surface covering compositions con-' taining siccative binders. v 7

These and other objects are attained ,byincorporating in a siccative composition'whi'ch is to be used in a floor covering composition .or

other surface covering composition a salt of guanyl urea and an organic or inorganicacid.

The following examples are given by wayjof illustration and not in limitation.

Example 1 Parts by weight Binder 30 Wood-flour 30 Whiting Lithopone '20 Guanyl urea phthalate 3 These substances with or without a'small'proportion of drier, epg. 0.1% cobalt naphthenate,

are mixed together, e. g. in an internal mixer. The compacted mass which is delivered from the mixer may be disintegrated, as by a set of scratch rolls which comprises 'a plurality of rolls having-intermeshingteeth projecting from their surfaces. The resulting material is sheeted on calender rolls or optionally it may befurther mixed and disintegrated'and then calendered. The material may be calenderecl on to burlap or other fibrous backing if desired. The sheeted material is: placed in astoving oven through whicha current of heated air from about 70 C. to 90 C. is circulated until the material is completely seasoned, i. e. until the sheet acquires the necessary degree of hardness.

The hardness may be measured by any of the methods generally employed in the manufacture of linoleum. See the Federal Stock Catalogue (U. S. Government Printing Oflice), section 4, part 5, pages LLL-L-351 et seq. and pages LLL-L-Bfil et seq, for the method employed herein. The time required for seasoning 9. 2 mm. sheet of the above composition is about five to six days. The resulting seasoned floor covering shows improved alkali resistance. One

method of determining'alkali resistance isto measure the depth" in millimeters to which a 5%"solution of sodium hydroxide in water penc tr'at'es inonehour at'a temperature of" F. By this methodthe alkali resistance of the sea soned' sheets is about 0.21 penetration.

The seasoning speed of a 2 mm. sheettof thesainemixture which does not contain guanyl urea phtlialate is about twelve to fourteendays and the alkali resistance of such a composition is about 0.28" mm. The marked improvement obtained with my composition is outstanding inasmuch as I have found it to be very difiicult to improve-the alkali resistance by even as little 0.01 min. V

n Ewcmple 2 Partsbywe'ig'ht Binderin 35 Wood flour' 30 Whiting 9.- V I 20 Lithopone 20 Guanyl urea benzoate n 0.3

These substances-may betmixed 'and sheetedin the: same gener al manner asthe procedure set forth in Example l. The resulting floor coveringmsheets -,season". or mature in about. seven to eight days and the seasoned sheets have an alkali. resistance of about 0.26 mm. as compared with 'a-seasoning speed of twelve to fourteen days and an alkalirresistance of about 0.28 mm. characteristic of similar "compositions which omit the guanyl urea benzoate. 1

' ExampleS V i l Partsbyweight Bind r-7+4.- 35 Wood 1 flours- 30 Whiting s 20 Lithopone 20 a 'Guanyl.urea.sulfate; ;s 0.3

This composition may beqmixed and sheeted according to the procedure of Example 1. The sheeted composition seasons in about seven to eight days and has an alkali resistance of about 0.23 mm.

Example 4 Parts by weight Binder 30 Wood flour 30 Whiting 20 Lithopone '20 Guanyl urea sulfate 3 If these substancesbe mixed and sheeted according to the method described in Example 1, the

seed oil is preferable for economic. reasons but other siccative oils may be used such as, for ,ex--

ample, menhaden or fish oil, tung oil, soy bean oil, perilla oil, oiticica oil, Scheiber oil, sunflower seed oil, etc. The term siccative 'oil as used herein is intended to include not only the'so-' called drying oils but also theso-called-semidrying oils. Furthermore it is possible to use:

mixtures of siccative oils with other fatty oils,

of the non-drying type.

It may be preferablein' themanufacture of linoleum to make use of so-called-scrim-oil or "shed oil either alone or fiuxedwith' rosin. or other gums or resins and/or mixed with" a proportion of the so-called mechanical oil. Either of these types of oils may be used singly if desired. i

In the preparation of the siccative oil binders it is'customary to use rosin in admixture with the oil although other substances of the'same type may be used, e. g., kauri gum, Congo gum, ester gum, abietic acid and its esters, pimaric acid, etc. i

Other siccative binders which may be used in the examples are the alkyd resins which have siccative properties. Among these, the drying oil modified reaction products of maleic or fumaric acid with terpenes and polyhydric alcohols are particularly desirable. Other alkyd resins which are modified with drying oils may be used suchas thephthalic-glyceride resins, the glycolm'aleic resins, and mixed resins such as the phthalic fumaric-glycol-glyceride resins.

Instead of wood flour and/or whiting and lithopone used in the examples, other fillers or pigments may be used. Examples of such fillers are: cork, cellulose pulp, asbestos, cottonwood tree pulp, walnut shell meal, glass fibers, foliated glass, etc. Among the pigments which may be used the iollowing are included: lithopone, barytes, zinc oxide, titanium oxide, chromates, red lead, white lead, malachite green, chrome green, chrome yellow, Prussian blue, iron oxide, etc. Similarly dyes and lakes may be used if desirable. 5

It is generally preferable to use driers in the preparation of the binders. The drier is usually added to the binder during the oxidation process and if desirable, additional'drir may be added when the binder, fillers,etc., are mixed together.

Suitable driers include the oil soluble salts such "as the naphthenates, resinates and linoleates of .heating or equivalent treatment to polymerize and/or oxidize the composition to a stage wherein '..the .floor covering is suiiiciently hard and resistant to abrasion to be suitable for its intended purpose and yet is still sufficiently flexible to permit the usual bending and rolling required of linoleum. The term maturing is similarly used.-

Other accelerators which may be used include guanyl urea acetate, guanyl urea carbonate, guanyl urea stearate, etc. .Ihavefound that only a small proportion of these accelerators is generally sumcient, e. g. 0.1-5% of the siccative composition but obviously smaller or larger proportions may be used if desirable.

My accelerators are preferably added during the mixing of the binder with the fillers, etc., although they may be added before or during the oxidation of the binder. If my accelerators are .added before or during the oxidation they appear to inhibit somewhat the gelation of the siccative binder. It is to be noted, however, that after gelation my accelerators speed up the curing of the siccative composition.

' Obviouslymany modifications in the processes and compositions described above may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

'I claim:

1. In a process of curing a surface covering composition including a siccative material selected from the group consisting of drying oils and drying oil modified polyhydric alcohol-polycarboxylic acid resins, the step which comprises adding to such a composition a salt of guanyl urea.

2. -In a process of curing a surface covering composition including a siccative material selected from the group consisting of drying oils and drying oil modified polyhydric alcohol-polycarboxylic acid resins, the step which comprises adding to such a composition guanyl urea sulfate. 3 3. In a process of curing a surface covering composition containing a siccative oil binder,

the step which comprises adding to such a composition guanyl urea benzoate.

4. In a process of curing a surface covering composition containing a siccative alkyd resin binder, the step which comprises adding to such urea phthalate.

a composition guanyl WALTER W. DURANT. 

